Sources of Social/Cultural Change

1. Sources of Social/Cultural Change Lesson 5

2. Essential Questions: • What are the main sources of social change? • What factors lead people to resist social change? Define: Ideology, social movement, technology, diffusion, reformulation, cultural lag

3. All Cultures change • Pace of change is closely related to the total number of culture traits that a culture has at a particular time. • The more culture traits the faster the culture can change. • Invention of the car • New form of transportation • New employment • New patterns of shopping • New patterns of urbanization • New leisure time activities

4. 6 factors that stimulate change • Values and beliefs • Technology • Population • Diffusion • Physical Environment • Wars and Conquests

5. Values and beliefs • Society is a system of interrelated parts • A change in one part of the system forces changes in another • Ideology: system of beliefs or ideas that justifies the social, moral, religious, political, or economic interests held by a society • Social Movement: a long-term conscious effort to promote or prevent social change; usually fueled by ideology • Social movements usually involve large numbers of people.

6. Social Movements • Prohibition, women’s rights, peace, civil rights, gay rights, environment • What impact did these movements have on our society? • How has our culture changed as a result of these movements?

7. Technology • Social change also occurs when people find new ways to manipulate their environment • 2 ways new technology comes about: discovery and invention • Discoveries: atomic fusion, chewing gum, oil shale • Inventions (material objects, ideas or patterns of behavior): • Material: gadget to take the pits out of cherries • Nonmaterial: political movements, new hobbies, religious movements

8. Population • A change in population may bring about changes • Since the early 1990s the U.S. population has been increasing • Population increases and decreases affect the economy • An increase in population also means that there are more people occupying the same space • Change in the age of the population brings about cultural changes

9. Diffusion • People often borrow ideas, beliefs, and material objects from other societies • The more contact a society has with other societies the more culture traits it will borrow. • Constant diffusion takes place through radio, television, the telephone, and the internet • In general, societies accept material culture and technology more freely than beliefs and ideas • Reformulation: borrowing cultural traits and then adapting them to fit their needs

10. The Physical environment • The environment provides unscheduled events that affect culture • Drought, flood, earthquake, tornado, tidal wave, hurricane • Change in the supply of natural resources • Gas prices • Cement • Groceries

11. Wars and conquests • These bring about the greatest changes in the shortest amount of time • Loss of lives • Destruction of property • New cities and towns • Changes in economy • Advances in technology and medicine • Changes in government and new rules • What happened to our country directly after Sept. 11, 2001?

12. Opposing social change • Cultural change rarely happens without some opposition • Social change often results from a compromise between opposing forces • Over time, some people may accept a change they initially rejected • The role of women in the work place

13. Resisting change • Ethnocentrism • Change that comes from outside a society usually meets with strong resistance • “Buy American” campaign of the 1970s • Target was the importation of Japanese cars • Promoters claimed buying imported cars put Americans out of work • They would demolish Japanese cars in demonstrations • Today, some Japanese cars are made by American workers on American soil

14. Cultural lag • Some cultural traits take a long time to be accepted • Material culture changes at a faster rate • Often, technological change results in cultural lag • The traditional school year had a long summer break so children could help with the harvest; today year-round schooling is still met with resistance • Computer and technology has a lot to offer schools; the price tag is too steep for some school districts and many schools are deficient in technology • Privacy issues are not a heated debate because the internet can store information about users

15. Vested interests • If a person is satisfied with the way things are now, they are likely to resist change; specifically if they perceive the change will threaten their security or standard of living • Workers may oppose technology if they fear the technology will replace them • The oil companies are notorious for protecting their “vested interests” and keeping us dependent upon them so they can earn billions

16. Assignment • Using the information from this lesson, write an essay about how the U.S. has changed in reaction to one of the following: • Natural disaster • Act of war or terror • Corporations with vested interests (i.e. oil) • Immigration to certain regions • Your essay should be about two pages long, double spaced, TNR, 12 pt font. Use a comparison/contrast format. Use at least two sources in addition to your experiences and memories. The sources should be listed at the end of the paper.